Louisville coach Rick Pitino is always eager to hype his players as “the next Charles Barkley” or “the next Tiny Archibald” and his team as the best since the ’76 Hoosiers and his conference, of course, the best in the world.

Pitino can spin a loss into an opportunity like no other. If he wants a second career, he has one in politics waiting.

Pitino has said Syracuse, Pitt and Notre Dame are making big mistakes by leaving the Big East for the ACC. And he has said newcomers Memphis and Temple will more than fill void and perhaps be an upgrade.

Such statements obviously touched a nerve with Boeheim.

“Rick’s full of (expletive) if that’s what he really said,” Boeheim told reporters Wednesday at Big East media day in New York, according to Zagsblog.com. “If he was in the Big 12 right now like he wanted to be, he’d being saying the Big 12 is the best. That’s the bottom line.

“The only thing I’ll say about what Rick said all summer is that if Louisville could have left they would have left. Everybody knows it, and I’m really tired of him saying what Syracuse should be or should have done because they would have left in a heartbeat. Everybody knows it. I don’t mind him denying that fact, but when they start talking about Syracuse I’m going to start talking about them.

“If you think those schools (Memphis, Temple) are better than Syracuse, then you don’t know what you’re talking about. And I think Rick’s smarter than that. At least I thought he was.”